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Hackers And E-Criminals Want Your E-Data: WePay Expert Sounds Off

E-Payments can be scary if you're not adequately protected. (Image Credit: David Goehring)

As more and more transactions take place online and on mobile devices, companies are spending buckets of time trying to make sure their clients money-matters are secure. One of those toiling in the e-commerce and online payment world is WePay. The company’s VP of Risk, John Canfield, spent a bit of time in the FORBES offices to give us the lowdown on how dangerous it is to exchange money digitally and how companies and users can protect themselves.

A payments API provider, WePay has tended to focus on platform businesses like marketplaces, crowdfunding sites and small business software—companies like GoFundMe, HoneyFund and Care.com. According to Canfield, everyday consumers tend to be the best protected in that reimbursement for online criminal shenanigans is an established norm.

More vigilant should be the marketplaces themselves—the Amazons and Walmarts of the world on down to the smaller online-retailers that have sprung up around every business with access to the web. “Those are the folks who need to worry about is this payment – for whatever order – fraudulent or not?”

On the aggressive end of the world of online transaction fraud are a myriad criminal operatives with varying levels of sophistication, says Canfield. In credit card scams, card numbers can be hacked and stolen and then sold to a whole ecosystem of other criminals who either use them to purchase goods at brick-and-mortar shops or purchase goods online. “There was $3.5 billion of online fraud estimated by CyberSource and (Merchant Risk Council),” Canfield says, citing 2012 figures.

Those are scary numbers for online businesses—both small and large. Watch our FORBES interview with Canfield for more data on how to protect your business.

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